DI MATTEO SACKING!

I for one disagreed with Roberto Di Matteo on a number of occasions in his squad selection and his tactics. I have written before that for a manager to succeed you must get rid of the “Avb syndrome”.
For those who don’t know the Avb syndrome , it usually occurs when a manager sticks to a formation whether the team is losing, away from home, scoring and or even when you are playing with one man less. In my opinion, this was RDM’s main undoing.
Further, in some cases rather than change formation he opted to change personalities instead. So that Chelsea would play the same formation, but have different players. Those are the moments you would see Betrand and Ashley Cole in the same match and most recently, Ivanovic and Cesar.
Whereas the performance has not been the best in recent times, we need to look at the records since 2004 season. November and December have not always been our best times in a season. The facts are there and the records are there for all to see. I am obviously getting over his sacking, but we cannot ignore the facts. What if, just what if Sturridge had tucked those two golden opportunities at Westbrom? The score would have been 3-2. What if, Hazard and Mata had scored at Juventus in the first half? What if Cluttenburg hadn’t sent off Ivanovic and Torres while playing against United? What if Hazard had converted those glorious opportunities in Donesk? What if Torres was a better finisher or some would say, what if the team didn’t miss Terry’s leadership as a result of the ban?
Chelsea is owned by Roman Abramovic. He can always do what he pleases. Hire whoever he feels like and fire them at whenever time he feels. It has been observed that ruthless as he is, Chelsea has been the most successful club in England, having collected ten major trophies since Roman arrived. He means well for the club, that’s for sure. He has invested heavily in it and obviously, he expects results. However, as fans we are also stakeholders too. We may not contribute as much, but in as much as it’s our duty to support whoever Roman hires; it’s also our duty to show our disappointment at the way things are run.
Successful clubs usually have plans. Some would break it down to two years or five years. Napoli had a 10year plan through its owner, Aurelio De Laurentiis. And now,8 years on Napoli has risen to the fourth most supported team in Italy and almost guaranteed European Competition. Some may ask what Chelsea’s plan was after winning the Champions League. Barcelona has dominated European football, the result of a plan invented and implemented by Yohan Cruff in 1992. Twenty years later they have been reaping the rewards of that plan. I also need to state here categorically, that there was a time in the early 2000’s that Barcelona were being dominated by Real Madrid and Valencia. The president was patient enough. They stuck to the plan and it paid off.
Chelsea fans who have supported the team prior to Abramovic’s arrival will attest to one thing. The club was just another mid table team, qualifying for Europe was our greatest a achievement. We won a couple of FA cups. This club was still ambitious. We won together, we lost together. We achieved some of our targets then and also failed miserably at others. But even then, to us Chelsea was still the pride of London.

We are now just another Arsenal

I have wondered and so are many others. How come Arsenal has not won any trophy 8years in arrow? My feeling is, it has largely been due to the lack of stability. Arsenal has been doing the complete opposite of what we are witnessing at Chelsea. The stability of the team depends on players and management. Whereas we have been changing managers, Arsenal has been changing players. It takes time for these players to adjust and the moment they do, they become stars and thereafter sold to other clubs and the search for new players continues. When these new players come in, it obviously takes time for them to understand each other and as such, your team becomes less competitive.
At Chelsea, a manager comes in, learns the players, creates a system and wins a trophy or two and the moment he fails, the search for another manager continues.
I long to see the day a manager will be given his time to work out his plan, build his team and at the same time win trophies. This a tough job, that even Pep Guardiola will not find easy. If he is given the job, what will be the objective? Will it be to win trophies or build a team that would eventually win trophies? You can never build a team and win trophies at the same time! It’s our time our boss became a little patient, just like we were even when we were not winning trophies!
So, if it is Benitez or John Terry or Pep Guardiola, we need patience from the boss!